Surgical Words
Partial List of “Surgical Words”
Surgical words are a staple to medical transcription, coding and billing. As an allied healthcare professional, part of your daily job is evaluating volumes of medical data. Encountering similar-sounding or similarly-spelled terms can be quite confusing at times.
The following list includes most commonly heard surgical words in the medical coding and transcription profession. The entire listing is alphabetized for your easy reference. If you are looking for the names of instruments, kindly refer to the alpha list.
- Incisions – look under “I”
- Dressings – look under “D”
- Positions – look under “P”
- Suture types – look under “S”
A
- abraders
- ACMI various instruments
- adenotome
- Adson clips, forceps, etc.
- Airtene
- Allen-Brown
- Allis forceps
- amniotome
- Ambu bag
- Applicator
- Argyle chest tube
- AXI tube
B
- Babcock, retractor, clamp, etc.
- Backhaus towel clamp
- Balfour retractor
- Ballenger
- Braithwaite
- Balloon catheter
- Bard-Parker blade
- Bardic blade, tube
- Bartos fibrin tunnel
- basket (stone)
- Bayonet thumb forceps
- beanbag
- Beaver blade (& deBakey)
- Bernay retractor
- Bird screw
- Birtcher cautery
- Blair saw guides
- Blalock
- bone wax
- bougie, bougie a’ boule (French)
- Bovie electrocautery
- Brown-Buerger
- Buettner-Parel
- buie
- brush
- Buerger needle, etc.
- bulldog clamp
- Bunnell needle
- bur
- buttress
C
- caliphers, calipers
- cannula
- capsulotome
- Castroviejo scissors, etc.
- Charnley
- chisel
- Cimono shunt
- coagulator
- colpostat
- compressor
- conchotome
- conductor
- connector
- Cooley
- costotome
- cranioclast
- craniotome
- Crile hemostats
- crimper
- crocodile clamp
- cryosurgical, extractor, probe, cannula
- cryptotome
- culdoscope
- curette
- Cushing clips, retractors, etc.
- Cutter
- cystoscope, Brown-Buerger
- cystotome
D
- Deaver retractor
- debrider
- dermabrader
- De Bakey
- D’Errico bur, etc.
- DeLee bulb, catheter
- dermatome
- DeVilbiss rongeur, trephine
- dilator
- dissector
- Dixon blade
- Dobbhoff tube
- Douvas cutter
- Doyen Clamps
- Doyen cross-action forceps
- drill
- Dumont forceps
- Dunhill hemostats
-
DRESSINGS
- absorbent
- adaptic
- bandaid
- bioclusive
- bulky
- collodion
- compression
- cotton
- Dri-Site
- dry
- Flexinet
- Esmarch
- fluffy
- Furacin
- gauze
- Gelfoam
- Impregnated
- Ioban
- iodoform (no cap)
- Jobst
- Jones
- Kerlix
- Kling
- Montgomery strips
- Nu-gauze
- pledgets (various types)
- Tegaderm
- Telfa
- Velpeau
- Weck-cel sponge
- Xeroform
E
- Eastman clamp
- electrotome
- elevator
- erisophake
- Ernst applicator
- Esmarch tourniquet (S-mark)
- evacuator
- excavator
- extractor
F
- fasciatome
- Ferguson forceps, scissors
- ferrule
- file
- filiforms (and followers)
- Flieringa scleral ring
- Fogarty catheter
- Foley catheter
- Followers and filiforms
- forcep(s)
- Freer elevator
- French catheter
- Frazier dural elevator
- Freidrich-Petz clamp
- fulgurating tip
- Furniss clamp
G
- Galt trephine
- Gelfoam
- Gelita B
- Gelpi retractor
- Gigli saw
- Goldman saw
- Gomco drain, tube, suction
- Gore-tex (grafts)
- gouge
- Graefe knife
- grooved director
- guide
H
- Hall air drill
- Halsted hemostats
- Heaney (clamp)
- Harrington forceps, rod, retractor
- Heaney clamps, etc.
- Hegar dilators
- Heifitz clips
- hemoclip
- hemostat
- Hemovac drain
- Hiphong trochanter
- Hirst forceps
- Hohmann
- Holinger-Jackson bronchoscope
- Holman
- hook, Bose, Braun, Pajot, Tyrrell, bone
- Horsley bone wax, separator
- Hudson drill
- Hulka clips
- Hurst dilator
- hyfrecator
I
-
INCISIONS
- Auvray
- Bar’s
- Battle
- Bergmann’s
- Bevan’s
- blunt and sharp
- buttonhole
- Cherney
- Chernez
- chevron
- circular
- circumareolar, -corneal
- circumferential
- circumoral
- circumscribing
- classical
- conjunctival
- corneoscleral
- corollary
- coronal
- crescent, and –shaped
- cross-shaped
- culdotomy
- curved
- curvilinear
- Deaver’s
- dissection
- elliptical
- endaural
- Fergusson’s
- Fowler’s
- Heerman’s
- hemitransfixion
- hockey stick
- infraorbital, -umbilical
- inguinal
- intercartilaginous
- intracapsular
- Kehr’s
- Kocher’s
- Kustner’s
- Langenbeck’s
- LaRoque’s
- lazy H, S, Z
- limbal
- linear
- longitudinal
- lower transverse abdominal
- lunar, semilunar
- Lynch’s
- McBurney
- median
- midline
- muscle splitting
- oblique
- orbicular
- para- w/costal, -median, -muscular, -rectus
- peri – w/limbal, -patellar, -scapular
- purse-string suture
- Pfannanstiel’s (fan-en-steel)
- postauricular
- rectus muscle splitting
- relaxing
- Rocky-Davis’
- Schuchardt’s
- semilunar, -shelving
- serpentine
- Shambaugh
- sharp and blunt
- shelving spiral
- S-shaped
- stab
- stellate, stellar
- sternal splitting
- subcostal, -occipital
- superficial
- supracervical, -pubic
- tracheal
- transection
- transverse
- T-shaped
- U-shaped
- vertical incision
- V-shaped
- W-shaped
- Yorke-Mason’s
- Y-type
- Z, Z-flap, -plasty, -shaped
J
- Jackson – many instruments
- Jackson Pratt drain, etc. AKA JP drain
- Jesberg bronchoscope, etc.
- Jewett brace, nail
- Judd various instruments
K
- Kanavel cannula
- Kerrison punch, rongeur
- keratome
- Kirmisson raspatory
- Kelly clamps, forceps, etc.
- Kerr drill
- Key drape
- Kirschner wire, etc.
- Kleinert-Kutz microscopic tool
- Klemme retractor
- knife
- Kocher clamps, forceps, etc.
- Koln clips
- Kolody hemostatsl
L
- lag screws
- Lane clamps
- Langenbeck elevator
- laser
- Lawton-Gulesserian
- LC-DC plate
- Leahey forcep, etc.
- Lebsche knife
- LeFort
- Lembert various
- leukotome
- Leyla-Yasargil retractor
- Ligaclip
- ligature carriers, passers
- llithotrites
- Lockwood clamps
- loupe (eye)
- Luque wire
M
- Machemer cutter
- Maguire-harvey cutter
- Malecot
- Malis coagulator
- Maloney dilator
- Martin needle
- Mayfield clips
- Mayo needle and scissors
- Mayo-Ochsner box-joint forceps
- Mayo-Hegar needle holder
- Mayo Pean forceps
- McKenzie clips
- McIntyre needle
- Mersilene suture
- Metzenbaum scisssors, chisel
- Michel clips
- Morris cannula
- Mosquito clamps
- Moynihan clamps
- Munro scissors, etc.
- Myringotome
N
- nail, nail plate
- neurotome
O
- obturator
- Olympus fibroscope
- Olivecrona clips
- Olive tip
- Ochsner clamps
- osteoclast
- osteotome
- O’Sullivan-O’Connor retractor
- Otis
- Oxycel
P
- Padgett dermatome
- Parker-Kerr forceps
- Patterson clips
- Payr clamp
- Penrose drain
- Pereyra needle
- perforator
- Pharmiseal drain
- Petty, Lim and Stahl
- phoroptor
- photocoagulator
- pick
- plates (bone)
- Politzer speculum (procedure)
- probe
POSITIONS
- cross table lateral
- decubitus (with directions), left lateral, dorsal, etc.
- dorsal, recumbent, lithotomy, supine
- frog-legged
- jack-knife
- knee chest, elbow
- lateral decubitus, left
- lithotomy, dorsal
- prone
- recumbent
- semireclining, recumbent
- supine
- Trendelenburg
Q
- Quinton-Scribner shunt
R
- rafting screws
- Raney clips, drill, clamps
- Rankin clamp
- reamer
- red rubber catheter
- retractor
- Reidel corneal needle
- rongeur
- Rush nail, rod
S
- Sachs cannula
- Satterlee saw
- Schwartz clips
- Scoville clips (also Lewis)
- Seldinger catheter
- Seletz cannula
- Senn retractor
- Sim’s retractor
- Sinskey hook (ophth)
- Smillie nail, punch
- Smithwick clip, hook
- sound
- speculum
- Spencer Well forceps
- Spurling rongeur
- Steenson clamps
- stent – tubing
- Steradrape
- stripper, vein
- Strycker – various
- sugar clips
- sump drain
- surgiclip Swan-Ganz catheter
SUTURES
– (see illustrations at end of listing)
- atraumatic
- Babcok
- braided
- catgut
- corneoscleral
- Connell suture (technique)
- chromic
- collagen
- cotton
- cuticular
- Dacron
- Dermalene
- Dermalon
- Dexon
- Ethibond
- Ethicon
- Ethiflex
- Ethilon
- Everting
- Frost stitch
- Halsted suture (technique)
- horizontal mattress suture (technique)
- Lembert suture (technique)
- lock or lock-stitch, locking-stitch (technique)
- over-and-over suture (technique)
- Mersilene
- Monofilament
- Monocryl
- PDS
- Prolene
- purse-string suture (technique)
- retention
- silk
- steel
- subcuticular suture (technique)
- Teflon
- tension
- Tevdek
- vertical mattress suture (technique)
T
- tenaculum, single tooth
- T-tube drain, etc.
- Tenckhoff
- Trephine
- triple lumen catheter
- Trocar
- Tru-cut needle
U – NO REFERENCES
V
- Vannes scissors
- Verres (vair-eese)
- Vi-drape
- Von Petz clamps
- Weck hemoclips
W
- Welch, Welch-Allen
- Whistle-tip catheter
X – NO REFERENCES
Y
- Yankauer scope
- Yasargil microclips
Z
- Zeiss-Barraquer microscope
- Zimmer blade, bolt